The company has wrapped up a slew of sales on Jonathan Mostow’s upcoming thriller starring Sam Worthington and Odeya Rush.
Principal photography is set to begin this week in Yorkshire on the story of a hitman who goes on the run across Europe with the woman he was hired to kill. Martin Compston, Amy Landecker and Verónica Echegui also star.
Paul Leyden, Oren Moverman, John Brancato and Michael Ferris adapted the screenplay from Kevin Wignall’s novel The Dogs.
Deals have closed in Germany (Square One), Latin America (Sun), South Korea (Focus And Company), South Africa (Ster Kinekor), Hong Kong and Taiwan (Sound Space), Switzerland (Ascot Elite) and former Yugoslavia (Blitz).
Sierra / Affinity licensed rights in Bulgaria (Tandem), Greece, India, Middle East and Turkey (Italia), Iceland (Myndform), Israel (United King), Indonesia (Pt Prima), Thailand (Mongkol), Malaysia and Vietnam (Roarlion) and Asia pay-tv (Star).
Financiers are Ingenious Senior Film Fund, Ingenious Project...
Principal photography is set to begin this week in Yorkshire on the story of a hitman who goes on the run across Europe with the woman he was hired to kill. Martin Compston, Amy Landecker and Verónica Echegui also star.
Paul Leyden, Oren Moverman, John Brancato and Michael Ferris adapted the screenplay from Kevin Wignall’s novel The Dogs.
Deals have closed in Germany (Square One), Latin America (Sun), South Korea (Focus And Company), South Africa (Ster Kinekor), Hong Kong and Taiwan (Sound Space), Switzerland (Ascot Elite) and former Yugoslavia (Blitz).
Sierra / Affinity licensed rights in Bulgaria (Tandem), Greece, India, Middle East and Turkey (Italia), Iceland (Myndform), Israel (United King), Indonesia (Pt Prima), Thailand (Mongkol), Malaysia and Vietnam (Roarlion) and Asia pay-tv (Star).
Financiers are Ingenious Senior Film Fund, Ingenious Project...
- 11/8/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
The Ingenious v Hmrc tribunal kicks off today in London.
Ingenious v Hmrc, the case which begins at the Competition Tribunal in Bloomsbury Place London today, marks the culmination of almost a decade of wrangling between the blue chip British media investment company and the Revenue.
Newspapers have been intrigued by the case because of the celebrity investors involved. David Beckham, Gary Lineker, Jeremy Paxman, Wayne Rooney, David Gower and politician Andrew Mitchell are among the names linked to either Ingenious funds Inside Track or Ingenious Film Partners.
The case is expected to last well into December. It will then take months for a decision to be handed down and whichever side loses is likely to appeal. According to the “Agreed Hearing Timetable” issued in advance of the trial, those being called will include Ingenious founder and CEO Patrick McKenna [pictured] and Ingenious Director Duncan Reid as well as such “expert witnesses” as Jonathan Olsberg and Angus Finney.
In...
Ingenious v Hmrc, the case which begins at the Competition Tribunal in Bloomsbury Place London today, marks the culmination of almost a decade of wrangling between the blue chip British media investment company and the Revenue.
Newspapers have been intrigued by the case because of the celebrity investors involved. David Beckham, Gary Lineker, Jeremy Paxman, Wayne Rooney, David Gower and politician Andrew Mitchell are among the names linked to either Ingenious funds Inside Track or Ingenious Film Partners.
The case is expected to last well into December. It will then take months for a decision to be handed down and whichever side loses is likely to appeal. According to the “Agreed Hearing Timetable” issued in advance of the trial, those being called will include Ingenious founder and CEO Patrick McKenna [pictured] and Ingenious Director Duncan Reid as well as such “expert witnesses” as Jonathan Olsberg and Angus Finney.
In...
- 11/3/2014
- by geoffrey@macnab.demon.co.uk (Geoffrey Macnab)
- ScreenDaily
Venice International Film Festival
VENICE, Italy -- The lesson in Asif Kapadia's Far North is that when an independent and obviously resourceful woman from the tundra says that a shaman told her she would bring harm to anyone foolish enough to get close to her, it's wise to listen.
A vicious little tale of the icy outdoors, screened in the Venice Nights sidebar, Far North features Michelle Yeoh as Saiva, the arctic equivalent of a mountain woman, who takes no prisoners in her desire for solitude. What begins as a tale of survival, however, ends in a climax so shocking and unexpected that the film shouldn't be mistaken for a nice little outing in the snow.
It will take skillful marketing but there should be an audience for a film that so cleverly masks its intentions without betraying the monstrous turn it takes. Yeoh's sinuous performance as the feral survivor is also a major selling point and co-stars Sean Bean and Michelle Krusiec also are fine. Cinematographer Roman Osin takes full advantage of the extraordinary environment and of Ben Scott's blisteringly real production and costume designs. Composer Dario Marianelli conjures cues to match the haunting and threatening images.
Set in the northern reaches of Norway in a land that is almost timeless, the film begins with an act of cruelty rendered with utmost gentleness as Saiva sacrifices one of her dogs for its blood and meat. The only human she allows near her is Anja (Krusiec), a beautiful young woman she has raised since saving her life as an infant.
Their life in the beautiful but unforgiving landscape is a daily fight against the cold and hunger but Saiva is not without a sense of humor. The dog's meat is tough. "Maybe next time we'll try one of the younger ones," she says.
In search of food and safe harbor, the pair row their boat down river past towering snow-white mountains, passing an industrialized outpost populated by men with guns ordering prisoners about. Traversing wide bodies of water amid looming icebergs, they reach dry land and a place to camp.
There is a sense of threat not only from the climate but also from the heavy boots of unleashed military authority. All is well, however, until one day a man shows up near death. Loki (Sean Bean) is from a village far away fleeing rampaging soldiers, and to Anja's surprise, Saiva takes him in. It's not a good move.
Flashbacks reveal how Saiva suffered the shaman's curse and how she saved Anja, but nothing is learned about Loki except that he's a resourceful killer. Three is a crowd, however, even in the freezing cold, but screenwriters Kapadia and Tim Miller don't sweat the small stuff. Their film is after more horrifying prey.
FAR NORTH
Ingenious Film Partners, Film4, Celluloid Dreams
Produced by The Bureau
Credits:
Director: Asif Kapadia
Screenwriters: Asif Kapadia, Tim Miller, based on the story True North by Sara Maitland
Producer: Bertrand Faivre
Executive producers: Tessa Ross, Christophe Vidal, Hengameh Panahi, Duncan Reid, Peter Touche
Director of photography: Roman Osin
Production designer: Ben Scott
Music: Dario Marianelli
Co-producers: Peter Borgli, Vincent Gadelle
Costumes: Ben Scott
Editor: Ewa J. Lind
Cast:
Saiva: Michelle Yeoh
Anja: Michelle Krusiec
Loki: Sean Bean
Andrei, soldier: Per Egil Aske
Blondy, soldier: Jan Olav Dahl
Baldy, soldier: Espen Prestbakmo
Slim, soldier: Hakan Niva
Ivar: Gary Pillai
Shaman: Bjarne Osterud
Soldier 1 with boat: Tommy Siikavuopio
Soldier 2 with boat: Mark van de Weg
Ivar's father: Sven Henriksen
Ivar's mother: Neeru Agarwal
Running time -- 89 minutes
No MPAA rating...
VENICE, Italy -- The lesson in Asif Kapadia's Far North is that when an independent and obviously resourceful woman from the tundra says that a shaman told her she would bring harm to anyone foolish enough to get close to her, it's wise to listen.
A vicious little tale of the icy outdoors, screened in the Venice Nights sidebar, Far North features Michelle Yeoh as Saiva, the arctic equivalent of a mountain woman, who takes no prisoners in her desire for solitude. What begins as a tale of survival, however, ends in a climax so shocking and unexpected that the film shouldn't be mistaken for a nice little outing in the snow.
It will take skillful marketing but there should be an audience for a film that so cleverly masks its intentions without betraying the monstrous turn it takes. Yeoh's sinuous performance as the feral survivor is also a major selling point and co-stars Sean Bean and Michelle Krusiec also are fine. Cinematographer Roman Osin takes full advantage of the extraordinary environment and of Ben Scott's blisteringly real production and costume designs. Composer Dario Marianelli conjures cues to match the haunting and threatening images.
Set in the northern reaches of Norway in a land that is almost timeless, the film begins with an act of cruelty rendered with utmost gentleness as Saiva sacrifices one of her dogs for its blood and meat. The only human she allows near her is Anja (Krusiec), a beautiful young woman she has raised since saving her life as an infant.
Their life in the beautiful but unforgiving landscape is a daily fight against the cold and hunger but Saiva is not without a sense of humor. The dog's meat is tough. "Maybe next time we'll try one of the younger ones," she says.
In search of food and safe harbor, the pair row their boat down river past towering snow-white mountains, passing an industrialized outpost populated by men with guns ordering prisoners about. Traversing wide bodies of water amid looming icebergs, they reach dry land and a place to camp.
There is a sense of threat not only from the climate but also from the heavy boots of unleashed military authority. All is well, however, until one day a man shows up near death. Loki (Sean Bean) is from a village far away fleeing rampaging soldiers, and to Anja's surprise, Saiva takes him in. It's not a good move.
Flashbacks reveal how Saiva suffered the shaman's curse and how she saved Anja, but nothing is learned about Loki except that he's a resourceful killer. Three is a crowd, however, even in the freezing cold, but screenwriters Kapadia and Tim Miller don't sweat the small stuff. Their film is after more horrifying prey.
FAR NORTH
Ingenious Film Partners, Film4, Celluloid Dreams
Produced by The Bureau
Credits:
Director: Asif Kapadia
Screenwriters: Asif Kapadia, Tim Miller, based on the story True North by Sara Maitland
Producer: Bertrand Faivre
Executive producers: Tessa Ross, Christophe Vidal, Hengameh Panahi, Duncan Reid, Peter Touche
Director of photography: Roman Osin
Production designer: Ben Scott
Music: Dario Marianelli
Co-producers: Peter Borgli, Vincent Gadelle
Costumes: Ben Scott
Editor: Ewa J. Lind
Cast:
Saiva: Michelle Yeoh
Anja: Michelle Krusiec
Loki: Sean Bean
Andrei, soldier: Per Egil Aske
Blondy, soldier: Jan Olav Dahl
Baldy, soldier: Espen Prestbakmo
Slim, soldier: Hakan Niva
Ivar: Gary Pillai
Shaman: Bjarne Osterud
Soldier 1 with boat: Tommy Siikavuopio
Soldier 2 with boat: Mark van de Weg
Ivar's father: Sven Henriksen
Ivar's mother: Neeru Agarwal
Running time -- 89 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 8/31/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
LONDON -- David Mackenzie's romantic drama Hallam Foe will open this year's Edinburgh International Film Festival, organizers said Wednesday.
Festival artistic director Hannah McGill described Mackenzie's movie as having a "an unforgettable atmosphere and some of the finest performances of the year."
The movie stars Jamie Bell along with Sophia Myles, Ciaran Hinds and Claire Forlani.
From a script Mackenzie and Ed Whitmore adapted from Peter Jinks' novel, Hallam Foe details the story of a young voyeur who is convinced that his stepmother is responsible for his mother's suicide. It is produced by Gillian Berrie and executive produced by Duncan Reid, Peter Touche and Matthew Justice.
The film will be distributed in the U.K. by Buena Vista International and in the U.S. by Magnolia Pictures.
Buena Vista International (U.K.) senior vp and managing director Robert Mitchell said the film is "a hugely accomplished piece of filmmaking" and that it "presents a beautiful vision of Edinburgh and is crafted by one of Scotland's most respected filmmakers."
This year's EIFF runs Aug.
Festival artistic director Hannah McGill described Mackenzie's movie as having a "an unforgettable atmosphere and some of the finest performances of the year."
The movie stars Jamie Bell along with Sophia Myles, Ciaran Hinds and Claire Forlani.
From a script Mackenzie and Ed Whitmore adapted from Peter Jinks' novel, Hallam Foe details the story of a young voyeur who is convinced that his stepmother is responsible for his mother's suicide. It is produced by Gillian Berrie and executive produced by Duncan Reid, Peter Touche and Matthew Justice.
The film will be distributed in the U.K. by Buena Vista International and in the U.S. by Magnolia Pictures.
Buena Vista International (U.K.) senior vp and managing director Robert Mitchell said the film is "a hugely accomplished piece of filmmaking" and that it "presents a beautiful vision of Edinburgh and is crafted by one of Scotland's most respected filmmakers."
This year's EIFF runs Aug.
- 6/21/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
CANNES -- U.K.-based media financier Ingenious said Tuesday that it plans to raise €150 million ($203 million) for a movie distribution fund.
The firm, whose name is synomous with tax-fueled production funding, said it will invest alongside European indie distributors to snap up rights to upcoming productions and libraries. Ingenious also aims to finance the marketing costs for titles on the fund.
The London-based company said the fund should be large enough to co-finance the distribution of more than 100 movies.
Ingenious intends to take a "slate approach," backing a distributor's entire portfolio of films.
Ingenious has not made clear whether it will partner exclusively with a single distributor in each territory or whether it expects to fuel the release of competing slates of movies.
"Film distribution is one of the most profitable yet underinvested parts of the global film industry," Ingenious commercial director Duncan Reid said. "The new fund will provide much needed capital for independent distributors looking to build larger film portfolios and improve their bargaining power with broadcasters and DVD retailers."
Reid noted that for investors the fund gives exposure to "the most secure revenue stream in film" and would offer "an attractive risk/return profile."
Ingenious will raise the fund from institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals, via a private placement of loan notes to be listed in Ireland.
The firm, whose name is synomous with tax-fueled production funding, said it will invest alongside European indie distributors to snap up rights to upcoming productions and libraries. Ingenious also aims to finance the marketing costs for titles on the fund.
The London-based company said the fund should be large enough to co-finance the distribution of more than 100 movies.
Ingenious intends to take a "slate approach," backing a distributor's entire portfolio of films.
Ingenious has not made clear whether it will partner exclusively with a single distributor in each territory or whether it expects to fuel the release of competing slates of movies.
"Film distribution is one of the most profitable yet underinvested parts of the global film industry," Ingenious commercial director Duncan Reid said. "The new fund will provide much needed capital for independent distributors looking to build larger film portfolios and improve their bargaining power with broadcasters and DVD retailers."
Reid noted that for investors the fund gives exposure to "the most secure revenue stream in film" and would offer "an attractive risk/return profile."
Ingenious will raise the fund from institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals, via a private placement of loan notes to be listed in Ireland.
- 5/16/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
LONDON -- The U.K. film industry, lawyers and accountants on Monday were mulling the impact of Friday's decision by the government to close a tax loophole used by individuals in limited liability partnerships to offset losses against tax.
And the harbingers of doom and gloom were gathering as the impact of the Revenue and Customs brief to limit the trading loss threshold to just £25,000 ($48,000) for such partnerships involving high net-worth investors is assessed.
What the legislative crackdown essentially means is that such individuals will no longer be offered tax reductions on any losses incurred in high-risk partnerships such as film financing.
Sources close to Revenue and Customs made it clear that the latest move was not aimed at the film industry, but will likely affect it.
As a spokesperson for the U.K. Film Council put it to media outlets here, the latest tax ruling is "not about film, but about tax avoidance."
Movie production financiers specializing in film financing models here include Ingenious, Scion, Future and Prescience.
Ingenious commercial director Duncan Reid said that reports of the move being an attack on so-called GAAP (general accepted accounting practices) schemes were overblown. "It is not an attack on GAAP financing in any way," Reid said.
And the harbingers of doom and gloom were gathering as the impact of the Revenue and Customs brief to limit the trading loss threshold to just £25,000 ($48,000) for such partnerships involving high net-worth investors is assessed.
What the legislative crackdown essentially means is that such individuals will no longer be offered tax reductions on any losses incurred in high-risk partnerships such as film financing.
Sources close to Revenue and Customs made it clear that the latest move was not aimed at the film industry, but will likely affect it.
As a spokesperson for the U.K. Film Council put it to media outlets here, the latest tax ruling is "not about film, but about tax avoidance."
Movie production financiers specializing in film financing models here include Ingenious, Scion, Future and Prescience.
Ingenious commercial director Duncan Reid said that reports of the move being an attack on so-called GAAP (general accepted accounting practices) schemes were overblown. "It is not an attack on GAAP financing in any way," Reid said.
LONDON -- The U.K. tax authorities appeared set to spoil another weekend for the film industry Friday as they unveiled a further clampdown on rules used by individuals in limited liability partnerships to offset losses against tax.
Production lawyers and accountants alike will be pouring over the Revenue and Customs brief published Friday, which limits the trading loss threshold to just £25,000 ($48,000) for such partnerships involving high net-worth individual investors.
Sources close to Revenue and Customs made it clear that while the latest move was not aimed at the film industry, it will likely affect it.
Movie production financiers specializing in film financing models here include such companies as Ingenious, Scion, Future and Prescience.
Ingenious commercial director Duncan Reid said reports of the move being an attack on so-called GAAP (General Accepted Accounting Practices) schemes were overblown. "It is not an attack on GAAP financing in any way," Reid said.
But he did say the move will have an "effect on the levels of investment in all the creative industries in the U.K." and not just the film industry.
Production lawyers and accountants alike will be pouring over the Revenue and Customs brief published Friday, which limits the trading loss threshold to just £25,000 ($48,000) for such partnerships involving high net-worth individual investors.
Sources close to Revenue and Customs made it clear that while the latest move was not aimed at the film industry, it will likely affect it.
Movie production financiers specializing in film financing models here include such companies as Ingenious, Scion, Future and Prescience.
Ingenious commercial director Duncan Reid said reports of the move being an attack on so-called GAAP (General Accepted Accounting Practices) schemes were overblown. "It is not an attack on GAAP financing in any way," Reid said.
But he did say the move will have an "effect on the levels of investment in all the creative industries in the U.K." and not just the film industry.
BERLIN -- Not a great title, "Hallam Foe", but it's a juicy character for the talented and increasingly ubiquitous Jamie Bell to run with. It's a showy part, but the movie ably supports it with splendid use of Edinburgh, Scotland's cityscapes, a basket full of startling surprises in the screenplay and characters without a fleck of sentimentality. With muscular marketing, the highly entertaining movie, written (with Ed Whitmore) and directed by David Mackenzie, could move beyond the art house niche in Europe and North America.
Rock bottom, what is going on beneath the crowded and quite funny surface of this film, is a lad going through hell following the sudden death of his mother. Hallam (Bell) has one question about her drowning in the lake next to the family's country home: Was it an accident? If not, he has a suspect: Verity (Claire Forlani), his dad's seductive secretary, who married Julius Foe (Ciaran Hinds) much too quickly following his mother's death.
His grief and anger express themselves in odd ways. Retreating to an elaborate childhood tree house, Hallam takes to spying on his dad and new wife through binoculars. Then one day, a fed-up Verity climbs into his tree house and seduces him! That's some stepmother.
Hallam understandably flees, winding up penniless on the streets of Edinburgh. He quickly finds a place to roost, where he continues his spying proclivities. One woman who catches his attention bears a shocking resemblance to his late mother. He follows Kate (a winsome Sophia Myles) to a deluxe hotel where she is the personnel director. After a brief though strange encounter, she hires him as a kitchen worker.
He continues to follow and watch Kate only to make the awful discovery that she is having an affair with the hotel manager, Alasdair (Jamie Sives), a married man. Alasdair becomes aware of Hallam's activities, fires him, but then is forced to rehire him when Hallam pulls off an audacious, cheeky stunt.
One night, Hallam goes drinking with his mother's look-alike and winds up in her bed. Strange things happen in this movie. Indeed, there are echoes of Alfred Hitchcock, especially the voyeurism of "Rear Window", the sexual obsession with a look-alike in "Vertigo" and even the mysterious drowning death in "Rebecca".
But the movie never becomes a thriller as Mackenzie is more interested in his characters and the emotions that run when a son loses his mother early. You don't have to buy this character completely to enjoy the movie.
Hallam Foe is a rather fictional conceit, no matter how you look at him. As he scampers along the rooftops and darts through open windows and passageways, he is the Phantom of the Opera with an obsession with a beautiful young woman and Spider-Man with his boyish obsession with solving crime.
This is the fun of the film. It's serious, but then again it's not. The story is rooted in the grim emotion of paralyzing grief, yet the story is wildly entertaining and in its sex scenes even a bit kinky. Kate's signature line is: "I like creepy men". So does the filmmaker.
Cinematographer Giles Nuttgens turns staid Edinburgh into a glittery, stately presence, especially in night shots, while Tom Sayer's production design creates a world of undergrounds and rooftops. Colin Monie's editing keeps things at a nimble pace, which is aided by an astute use of pop songs for the musical score.
HALLAM FOE
Sigma Films/FilmFour/Scottish Screen/Lunar Films
Credits:
Director: David Mackenzie
Screenwriters: Ed Whitmore, David Mackenzie
Based on the novel by: Peter Jinks
Producer: Gillian Barrie
Executive producers: Matthew Justice, David Mackenzie, Peter Carlton, Carole Sheridan, Lenny Crooks, Peter Touche, Duncan Reid, Alastair Mackenzie
Director of photography: Giles Nuttgens
Production designer: Tom Sayer
Costume designer: Trisha Biggar
Editor: Colin Monie
Cast:
Hallam: Jamie Bell
Kate: Sophia Myles
Julius: Ciaran Hinds
Alasdair: Jamie Sives
Raymond: Maurice Roeves
Andy: Ewen Bremner
Verity: Claire Forlani
Running time -- 96 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Rock bottom, what is going on beneath the crowded and quite funny surface of this film, is a lad going through hell following the sudden death of his mother. Hallam (Bell) has one question about her drowning in the lake next to the family's country home: Was it an accident? If not, he has a suspect: Verity (Claire Forlani), his dad's seductive secretary, who married Julius Foe (Ciaran Hinds) much too quickly following his mother's death.
His grief and anger express themselves in odd ways. Retreating to an elaborate childhood tree house, Hallam takes to spying on his dad and new wife through binoculars. Then one day, a fed-up Verity climbs into his tree house and seduces him! That's some stepmother.
Hallam understandably flees, winding up penniless on the streets of Edinburgh. He quickly finds a place to roost, where he continues his spying proclivities. One woman who catches his attention bears a shocking resemblance to his late mother. He follows Kate (a winsome Sophia Myles) to a deluxe hotel where she is the personnel director. After a brief though strange encounter, she hires him as a kitchen worker.
He continues to follow and watch Kate only to make the awful discovery that she is having an affair with the hotel manager, Alasdair (Jamie Sives), a married man. Alasdair becomes aware of Hallam's activities, fires him, but then is forced to rehire him when Hallam pulls off an audacious, cheeky stunt.
One night, Hallam goes drinking with his mother's look-alike and winds up in her bed. Strange things happen in this movie. Indeed, there are echoes of Alfred Hitchcock, especially the voyeurism of "Rear Window", the sexual obsession with a look-alike in "Vertigo" and even the mysterious drowning death in "Rebecca".
But the movie never becomes a thriller as Mackenzie is more interested in his characters and the emotions that run when a son loses his mother early. You don't have to buy this character completely to enjoy the movie.
Hallam Foe is a rather fictional conceit, no matter how you look at him. As he scampers along the rooftops and darts through open windows and passageways, he is the Phantom of the Opera with an obsession with a beautiful young woman and Spider-Man with his boyish obsession with solving crime.
This is the fun of the film. It's serious, but then again it's not. The story is rooted in the grim emotion of paralyzing grief, yet the story is wildly entertaining and in its sex scenes even a bit kinky. Kate's signature line is: "I like creepy men". So does the filmmaker.
Cinematographer Giles Nuttgens turns staid Edinburgh into a glittery, stately presence, especially in night shots, while Tom Sayer's production design creates a world of undergrounds and rooftops. Colin Monie's editing keeps things at a nimble pace, which is aided by an astute use of pop songs for the musical score.
HALLAM FOE
Sigma Films/FilmFour/Scottish Screen/Lunar Films
Credits:
Director: David Mackenzie
Screenwriters: Ed Whitmore, David Mackenzie
Based on the novel by: Peter Jinks
Producer: Gillian Barrie
Executive producers: Matthew Justice, David Mackenzie, Peter Carlton, Carole Sheridan, Lenny Crooks, Peter Touche, Duncan Reid, Alastair Mackenzie
Director of photography: Giles Nuttgens
Production designer: Tom Sayer
Costume designer: Trisha Biggar
Editor: Colin Monie
Cast:
Hallam: Jamie Bell
Kate: Sophia Myles
Julius: Ciaran Hinds
Alasdair: Jamie Sives
Raymond: Maurice Roeves
Andy: Ewen Bremner
Verity: Claire Forlani
Running time -- 96 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 2/19/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
James Franco and Jean Reno will head the cast of Electric Entertainment's Flyboys, which will be directed by Tony Bill. Electric principal Dean Devlin will produce with Marc Frydman. The screenplay was written by David Ward, based on an original screenplay by Phil Sears and Blake Evans. Principal photography is scheduled to begin April 18 in the United Kingdom. Ingenious Entertainment's Duncan Reid and James Clayton will executive produce along with David Brown and Phil Goldfarb. Electric's Marc Roskin and Kearie Peak will co-produce, with Electric's Rachel Olschan serving as associate producer.
This review was written for the festival screening of Hotel Rwanda.
Following on the promise of his 1996 directorial debut, Some Mother's Son, writer-director Terry George delivers a compelling dramatization of a Rwandan man's quiet heroics in the midst of his country's 1994 civil war.
Both tough and tender, the movingly rendered production often strikes a devastating chord without resorting to any of the manipulative string-pulling known to accompany movies about "men who made a difference."
But the film's biggest secret weapon is a commanding turn by the always-reliable Don Cheadle as selfless hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina. Required to appear in virtually every scene, Cheadle impressively carries the entire picture, delivering the kind of note-perfect performance that's absolutely deserving of Oscar consideration.
With the right kind of marketing, Hotel Rwanda has the crowd-stirring potential to generate solid awards season business.
When we first meet Cheadle's Rusesabagina, the eager-to-please manager of a posh hotel caters to his important guests with precision hospitality. He knows whose checked briefcases should be returned containing a couple of bottles of good scotch, just in case he may need a little assistance down the road.
Paul is required to cash in on those stockpiled favors a lot sooner than anticipated when tension between his country's Hutu extremist and Tutsi populations erupts into an all-out blood bath.
Amidst all the slaughter (three months later one million people would be killed), Paul turns the luxurious, Belgian-owned Hotel Mille Collines into a shelter not only for his own wife and family, but also to shield hundreds and hundreds of Tutsi refugees who were being hunted down and massacred.
Only slightly less shameful is the general indifference his country's plight is met with by the rest of the world, leaving Rusesabagina to call upon his rapidly dwindling resources to save as many lives as he can until a promised United Nations rescue materializes.
Despite the socio-political context, the film also functions as an effective romantic drama centered around the moving relationship shared by Rusesabagina and his wife Tatiana (equally well-played by Sophie Okonedo), a woman of similar resolve.
Rounding out the fine performances are Nick Nolte as a sympathetic but essentially powerless UN officer and Joaquin Phoenix as a photojournalist who becomes emotionally involved with a Rwandan woman.
Reminiscent of The Killing Fields in its blend of unflinching realism (actually staged in South Africa) and human drama, Hotel Rwanda also calls to mind the work of Jim Sheridan, with whom George collaborated on In the Name of the Father and The Boxer.
Those production values are reinforced by the immediacy of Robert Fraisse's cinematography and by Andrea Guerra's evocative, multi-layered score.
United Artists
A United Artists presentation in association with Lions Gate Entertainment
A South Africa/United Kingdom/Italy co-production in association with The Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa
A Miracle Pictures/Seamus production in association with Inside Track
Credits:
Director: Terry George
Screenwriters: Terry George, Keir Pearson
Producers: Terry George, A. Kitman Ho
Executive producers: Hal Sadoff, Martin F. Katz, Duncan Reid, Sam Bhembe
Director of photography: Robert Fraisse
Production designer: Johnny Breedt
Editor: Naomi Geraghty
Costume designer: Ruy Filipe
Music: Andrea Guerra.
Cast:
Paul Rusesabagina: Don Cheadle
Tatiana: Sophie Okonedo
Jack: Joaquin Phoenix
Colonel Oliver: Nick Nolte
Running time -- 110 minutes
MPAA Rating: not yet rated...
Following on the promise of his 1996 directorial debut, Some Mother's Son, writer-director Terry George delivers a compelling dramatization of a Rwandan man's quiet heroics in the midst of his country's 1994 civil war.
Both tough and tender, the movingly rendered production often strikes a devastating chord without resorting to any of the manipulative string-pulling known to accompany movies about "men who made a difference."
But the film's biggest secret weapon is a commanding turn by the always-reliable Don Cheadle as selfless hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina. Required to appear in virtually every scene, Cheadle impressively carries the entire picture, delivering the kind of note-perfect performance that's absolutely deserving of Oscar consideration.
With the right kind of marketing, Hotel Rwanda has the crowd-stirring potential to generate solid awards season business.
When we first meet Cheadle's Rusesabagina, the eager-to-please manager of a posh hotel caters to his important guests with precision hospitality. He knows whose checked briefcases should be returned containing a couple of bottles of good scotch, just in case he may need a little assistance down the road.
Paul is required to cash in on those stockpiled favors a lot sooner than anticipated when tension between his country's Hutu extremist and Tutsi populations erupts into an all-out blood bath.
Amidst all the slaughter (three months later one million people would be killed), Paul turns the luxurious, Belgian-owned Hotel Mille Collines into a shelter not only for his own wife and family, but also to shield hundreds and hundreds of Tutsi refugees who were being hunted down and massacred.
Only slightly less shameful is the general indifference his country's plight is met with by the rest of the world, leaving Rusesabagina to call upon his rapidly dwindling resources to save as many lives as he can until a promised United Nations rescue materializes.
Despite the socio-political context, the film also functions as an effective romantic drama centered around the moving relationship shared by Rusesabagina and his wife Tatiana (equally well-played by Sophie Okonedo), a woman of similar resolve.
Rounding out the fine performances are Nick Nolte as a sympathetic but essentially powerless UN officer and Joaquin Phoenix as a photojournalist who becomes emotionally involved with a Rwandan woman.
Reminiscent of The Killing Fields in its blend of unflinching realism (actually staged in South Africa) and human drama, Hotel Rwanda also calls to mind the work of Jim Sheridan, with whom George collaborated on In the Name of the Father and The Boxer.
Those production values are reinforced by the immediacy of Robert Fraisse's cinematography and by Andrea Guerra's evocative, multi-layered score.
United Artists
A United Artists presentation in association with Lions Gate Entertainment
A South Africa/United Kingdom/Italy co-production in association with The Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa
A Miracle Pictures/Seamus production in association with Inside Track
Credits:
Director: Terry George
Screenwriters: Terry George, Keir Pearson
Producers: Terry George, A. Kitman Ho
Executive producers: Hal Sadoff, Martin F. Katz, Duncan Reid, Sam Bhembe
Director of photography: Robert Fraisse
Production designer: Johnny Breedt
Editor: Naomi Geraghty
Costume designer: Ruy Filipe
Music: Andrea Guerra.
Cast:
Paul Rusesabagina: Don Cheadle
Tatiana: Sophie Okonedo
Jack: Joaquin Phoenix
Colonel Oliver: Nick Nolte
Running time -- 110 minutes
MPAA Rating: not yet rated...
Screened at the Venice International Film Festival
Mike Leigh's Vera Drake is a kitchen-sink slice-of-life drama with an eye for detail as hypnotically acute as it is relentlessly gloomy. It's difficult to think of another recent film so seamlessly rendered or that envelops an audience so completely in its period authenticity.
The film generated sustained applause at a press and industry screening in Venice. Audiences may be hard to come by due to the film's depressing subject matter but the rewards are many for those who admire the strict discipline of filmmaking driven by character and environment. Awards will come by the bucket load.
It is 1950 in working-class London, a post-war era with harsh memories and a bleak existence yet to be blown apart by the angry young men that would lead to the '60s cultural revolution. The Drake family lives in quiet desperation enriched by closeness and small kindnesses, and sustained by the repeated mantra that in contrast to many "we have a lot to be thankful for."
Vera (Imelda Staunton) is kindness personified, an unstinting wife, mum and friend who cleans posh houses for a living but always drops by to see shut-in neighbors to make a cuppa tea and tuck them in, and doesn't neglect her mum, who's quite poorly. Stan (Phil Davis) saw some nasty things in the war but he's a stalwart husband and dad, working as a mechanic at his loyal brother Frank's garage. Their son Sid (Daniel Mays) is a charmer who works at a tailor's shop, and daughter Ethel (Alex Kelly) is a bit quiet but a good knitter and has a job testing light bulbs. She'll make a good wife for neighbor Reg (Eddie Marsan) one day, she will.
Their pre-television life is drab and uneventful with nights spent hardly speaking to one another but content for all that, having a lot to be thankful for. But Vera has a secret. For some 20 years, she's been helping out young girls who get into a spot of trouble. Vera doesn't like the word abortion; she sees it as helping out.
Vera uses a syringe and soapy water and she's confident that the procedure is safe and is only too pleased to help out for nothing when poor girls, mothers with too many children, and misbehaving wives ask for her help. Her clients are strictly working class. Unknown to her, for instance, the daughter at one of the wealthy homes she cleans has also become pregnant. For this girl, it's simply a matter of paying 100 guineas for a psychiatrist to smilingly approve a discreet little operation at a clean and proper nursing home, then home to mater and pater.
Not so for Vera's girls. Not only is backstreet abortion illegal, it's also dangerous. When one of the girls she's helped has a bad reaction and becomes seriously ill, the hospital that treats her calls in the police. Vera's tough but cosy life is about to be invaded.
Writer-director Leigh tells the story of Vera Blake with an unblinking eye and a complete absence of sentiment. The period detail is astonishing in every respect. The characters smack of genuine honesty and are played throughout by actors whose attention to nuance is as fully developed as Leigh's. All technical aspects are first rate.
Alain Sarde and the U.K. Film Council present in association with Inside Track Thin Man Films.
Credits:
Director and screenwriter: Mike Leigh
Producers: Simon Channing Williams, Alain Sarde
Executive producers: Robert Jones, Gail Egan, Duncan Reid, Christine Gozlan
Cinematographer: Dick Pope
Editor: Jim Clark
Production designer: Eve Stewart
Costumes: Jacqueline Durran
Sound: Tim Fraser
Music: Andrew Dickson
Cast:
Vera Drake: Imelda Staunton
Stan: Phil Davis
Det. Inspector Webster: Peter Wright
Frank: Adrian Scarborough
Joyce: Heather Craney
Sid: Daniel Mays
Ethel: Alex Kelly
Susan: Sally Hawkins
Reg: Eddie Marsan
Lily: Ruth Sheen
WPC Best: Helen Coker
Det. Sgt. Vickers: Martin Savage
Very young woman: Sinead Matthews
Susan's confidante: Fenella Woolgar
Judge: Jim Broadbent
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 125 mins...
Mike Leigh's Vera Drake is a kitchen-sink slice-of-life drama with an eye for detail as hypnotically acute as it is relentlessly gloomy. It's difficult to think of another recent film so seamlessly rendered or that envelops an audience so completely in its period authenticity.
The film generated sustained applause at a press and industry screening in Venice. Audiences may be hard to come by due to the film's depressing subject matter but the rewards are many for those who admire the strict discipline of filmmaking driven by character and environment. Awards will come by the bucket load.
It is 1950 in working-class London, a post-war era with harsh memories and a bleak existence yet to be blown apart by the angry young men that would lead to the '60s cultural revolution. The Drake family lives in quiet desperation enriched by closeness and small kindnesses, and sustained by the repeated mantra that in contrast to many "we have a lot to be thankful for."
Vera (Imelda Staunton) is kindness personified, an unstinting wife, mum and friend who cleans posh houses for a living but always drops by to see shut-in neighbors to make a cuppa tea and tuck them in, and doesn't neglect her mum, who's quite poorly. Stan (Phil Davis) saw some nasty things in the war but he's a stalwart husband and dad, working as a mechanic at his loyal brother Frank's garage. Their son Sid (Daniel Mays) is a charmer who works at a tailor's shop, and daughter Ethel (Alex Kelly) is a bit quiet but a good knitter and has a job testing light bulbs. She'll make a good wife for neighbor Reg (Eddie Marsan) one day, she will.
Their pre-television life is drab and uneventful with nights spent hardly speaking to one another but content for all that, having a lot to be thankful for. But Vera has a secret. For some 20 years, she's been helping out young girls who get into a spot of trouble. Vera doesn't like the word abortion; she sees it as helping out.
Vera uses a syringe and soapy water and she's confident that the procedure is safe and is only too pleased to help out for nothing when poor girls, mothers with too many children, and misbehaving wives ask for her help. Her clients are strictly working class. Unknown to her, for instance, the daughter at one of the wealthy homes she cleans has also become pregnant. For this girl, it's simply a matter of paying 100 guineas for a psychiatrist to smilingly approve a discreet little operation at a clean and proper nursing home, then home to mater and pater.
Not so for Vera's girls. Not only is backstreet abortion illegal, it's also dangerous. When one of the girls she's helped has a bad reaction and becomes seriously ill, the hospital that treats her calls in the police. Vera's tough but cosy life is about to be invaded.
Writer-director Leigh tells the story of Vera Blake with an unblinking eye and a complete absence of sentiment. The period detail is astonishing in every respect. The characters smack of genuine honesty and are played throughout by actors whose attention to nuance is as fully developed as Leigh's. All technical aspects are first rate.
Alain Sarde and the U.K. Film Council present in association with Inside Track Thin Man Films.
Credits:
Director and screenwriter: Mike Leigh
Producers: Simon Channing Williams, Alain Sarde
Executive producers: Robert Jones, Gail Egan, Duncan Reid, Christine Gozlan
Cinematographer: Dick Pope
Editor: Jim Clark
Production designer: Eve Stewart
Costumes: Jacqueline Durran
Sound: Tim Fraser
Music: Andrew Dickson
Cast:
Vera Drake: Imelda Staunton
Stan: Phil Davis
Det. Inspector Webster: Peter Wright
Frank: Adrian Scarborough
Joyce: Heather Craney
Sid: Daniel Mays
Ethel: Alex Kelly
Susan: Sally Hawkins
Reg: Eddie Marsan
Lily: Ruth Sheen
WPC Best: Helen Coker
Det. Sgt. Vickers: Martin Savage
Very young woman: Sinead Matthews
Susan's confidante: Fenella Woolgar
Judge: Jim Broadbent
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 125 mins...
- 10/25/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Screened
Telluride Film Festival
A small but big-talent cast gets an intellectual workout in Enduring Love, director Roger Michell's wrenching tableau of an unraveling relationship. Daniel Craig, in his meatiest film role to date, delivers his usual incisive performance, even if this intimate drama of contemporary Londoners pushes the boundaries of credibility.
Novelist Ian McEwan's book, though opened out by screenwriter Joe Penhall, receives a faithful rendering. We are privy to a provocative examination of romance, obsession and the manner in which an unexpected event can subvert our lives. The Paramount Classics release should produce solid early-autumn boxoffice in adult specialty venues.
Craig, reteamed with his producer and director from The Mother, portrays Joe, a London professor contentedly involved with his live-in girlfriend Claire (Samantha Morton), a successful sculptress. In the film's opening scene, they settle into an idyllic picnic in Oxfordshire. Then, literally out of the blue, a gigantic hot-air balloon comes bouncing into view. It is in distress, with a frightened boy in its basket. Craig and a handful of farmers and passers-by instinctively try to bring it safely to earth. One of the good Samaritans suffers a fatal accident, but it is another, a moon-faced Jed (Rhys Ifans), who sets the story in motion.
Jed, apparently dazed by the incident, begins to contact the professor at his apartment in the city. The bedgraggled soul seems at first to be a religious zealot, or perhaps a bit of a simpleton. One thing is certain: In his insistence on exploring an imagined bond between the two of them, he quickly becomes a nuisance.
The balance of the movie finds the academic at his wits' end, both in grappling with the residual effects of the bizarre rescue/tragedy as well as in discerning the motivations of this sycophant-cum-stalker. Intriguingly, Joe tries to connect strands of these two themes to uncover the truth and solve (for his own sanity) the mystery of that fateful afternoon. Not surprisingly, he is starting to alienate Claire and everyone in his life.
To its credit, the film is tight, focused and suspenseful in the depiction of the randomness of events, and how a serendipitous moral action can spiral out of control, upsetting not merely order and regimen but emotion and love. Michell and cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos perfectly capture the gray yet trendy London settings with constantly fluid, roaming and offbeat angles that suit the story.
But it is hard to fathom Joe's internalizing of such a potentially explosive situation. Claire suggests that he seek psychological counseling, and virtually anyone would at least consider alerting the police. However, Joe can't help but see the balloon accident as a springboard for self-examination and discovery. Consequently, his skirmishes with Jed are almost operatic in their intensity.
Ifans, who broke out in Michell's Notting Hill, delivers a performance that teeters admirably between the pathetic and disturbed. Craig, who has been effective going back to Love Is the Devil, is well cast as the modern "hero," embodying the physical and cerebral, something of a cross between Sean Penn and Anthony Hopkins. Morton is good in what is essentially a supporting role.
The couple's best friends (characters invented for the film) are depicted by the always reliable Bill Nighy and Susan Lynch. Helen McCrory impresses as a conflicted widow. Impatient viewers will miss the filmmakers' nicely executed (unspoken) coda after credit roll.
ENDURING LOVE
Paramount Classics
Pathe Pictures in association with the U.K. Film Council and Film Four and Inside Track present a Free Range Film
Credits:
Director: Roger Michell
Writer: Joe Penhall
Based on the novel by: Ian McEwan
Producer: Kevin Loader
Executive producers: Francois Ivernel, Cameron McCracken, Duncan Reid, Tessa Ross
Director of photography: Haris Zambarloukos
Production designer: John-Paul Kelly
Music: Jeremy Sams
Costume designer: Natalie Ward
Editor: Nicolas Gaster
Cast:
Joe: Daniel Craig
Jed: Rhys Ifans
Claire: Samantha Morton
Robin: Bill Nighy
Rachel: Susan Lynch
Mrs. Logan: Helen McCrory
TV Producer: Andrew Lincoln
Professor: Corin Redgrave
MPAA rating: R
Running time -- 98 minutes...
Telluride Film Festival
A small but big-talent cast gets an intellectual workout in Enduring Love, director Roger Michell's wrenching tableau of an unraveling relationship. Daniel Craig, in his meatiest film role to date, delivers his usual incisive performance, even if this intimate drama of contemporary Londoners pushes the boundaries of credibility.
Novelist Ian McEwan's book, though opened out by screenwriter Joe Penhall, receives a faithful rendering. We are privy to a provocative examination of romance, obsession and the manner in which an unexpected event can subvert our lives. The Paramount Classics release should produce solid early-autumn boxoffice in adult specialty venues.
Craig, reteamed with his producer and director from The Mother, portrays Joe, a London professor contentedly involved with his live-in girlfriend Claire (Samantha Morton), a successful sculptress. In the film's opening scene, they settle into an idyllic picnic in Oxfordshire. Then, literally out of the blue, a gigantic hot-air balloon comes bouncing into view. It is in distress, with a frightened boy in its basket. Craig and a handful of farmers and passers-by instinctively try to bring it safely to earth. One of the good Samaritans suffers a fatal accident, but it is another, a moon-faced Jed (Rhys Ifans), who sets the story in motion.
Jed, apparently dazed by the incident, begins to contact the professor at his apartment in the city. The bedgraggled soul seems at first to be a religious zealot, or perhaps a bit of a simpleton. One thing is certain: In his insistence on exploring an imagined bond between the two of them, he quickly becomes a nuisance.
The balance of the movie finds the academic at his wits' end, both in grappling with the residual effects of the bizarre rescue/tragedy as well as in discerning the motivations of this sycophant-cum-stalker. Intriguingly, Joe tries to connect strands of these two themes to uncover the truth and solve (for his own sanity) the mystery of that fateful afternoon. Not surprisingly, he is starting to alienate Claire and everyone in his life.
To its credit, the film is tight, focused and suspenseful in the depiction of the randomness of events, and how a serendipitous moral action can spiral out of control, upsetting not merely order and regimen but emotion and love. Michell and cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos perfectly capture the gray yet trendy London settings with constantly fluid, roaming and offbeat angles that suit the story.
But it is hard to fathom Joe's internalizing of such a potentially explosive situation. Claire suggests that he seek psychological counseling, and virtually anyone would at least consider alerting the police. However, Joe can't help but see the balloon accident as a springboard for self-examination and discovery. Consequently, his skirmishes with Jed are almost operatic in their intensity.
Ifans, who broke out in Michell's Notting Hill, delivers a performance that teeters admirably between the pathetic and disturbed. Craig, who has been effective going back to Love Is the Devil, is well cast as the modern "hero," embodying the physical and cerebral, something of a cross between Sean Penn and Anthony Hopkins. Morton is good in what is essentially a supporting role.
The couple's best friends (characters invented for the film) are depicted by the always reliable Bill Nighy and Susan Lynch. Helen McCrory impresses as a conflicted widow. Impatient viewers will miss the filmmakers' nicely executed (unspoken) coda after credit roll.
ENDURING LOVE
Paramount Classics
Pathe Pictures in association with the U.K. Film Council and Film Four and Inside Track present a Free Range Film
Credits:
Director: Roger Michell
Writer: Joe Penhall
Based on the novel by: Ian McEwan
Producer: Kevin Loader
Executive producers: Francois Ivernel, Cameron McCracken, Duncan Reid, Tessa Ross
Director of photography: Haris Zambarloukos
Production designer: John-Paul Kelly
Music: Jeremy Sams
Costume designer: Natalie Ward
Editor: Nicolas Gaster
Cast:
Joe: Daniel Craig
Jed: Rhys Ifans
Claire: Samantha Morton
Robin: Bill Nighy
Rachel: Susan Lynch
Mrs. Logan: Helen McCrory
TV Producer: Andrew Lincoln
Professor: Corin Redgrave
MPAA rating: R
Running time -- 98 minutes...
- 10/12/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Screened at the Toronto International Film Festival
TORONTO -- Millions finds Danny Boyle, one of Britain's most stylish filmmakers, in a fanciful mood, open to a story about saints and miracles and the way a child's imagination can help sort out the mysteries of life. It's a modern-day fable told in semirealistic terms, only with the understanding that a boy can believe in miracles just as another might put his faith in a star athlete.
This Fox Searchlight release will need imagination in its marketing, for this is no easy sell in specialty venues. Critical reception may pay a large role in its boxoffice success.
In all his films, Boyle loves to take the view that reality is what you make of it. He's not a surrealist, but rather believes that film like dreams can transport us to realms not immediately apparent to the naked eye.
In Millions, scripted by 24 Hour Party People writer Frank Cottrell Boyce, we follow the emotional journey of two brothers, 7-year-old Damian (Alex Etel) and 9-year-old Anthony (Lewis McGibbon), who move to the suburbs in northern England with their dad (James Nesbitt) after their mom dies. Anthony is a practical-minded kid who covers up his emotions, but Damian is more of a dreamer. He has studied the lives of the saints and experiences visitations by several of his favorites, whose stories help him deal with life's perplexities.
When a large bag jammed with money falls off a train and virtually lands on top of Damian, he accepts this as a gift from God. Anthony says it's best not to tell Dad because of the taxes; the government will take 40%. Behind his brother's back, Damian goes on a rescue mission: He tries to give much of the money away to poor people.
Then the boys learn the money was actually stolen by a gang of thieves. This is a crushing blow to Damian since he can no longer consider the cash to be a gift from God. Soon one nasty-looking thief (Christopher Fulford) comes looking for his loot. When Dad and his new girlfriend (Daisy Donovan) learn of the money, the boys are disappointed that the adults show a more mercenary attitude toward the windfall.
Using digital effects and sharp camera angles and movements that treat the adult world as a kind of huge playground, Boyle maneuvers the fragile tale through a colorful, fairy-tale-like milieu. At times, style seems on the verge of triumphing over substance, but Boyle's firm hand and astute, natural acting by the two youngsters keep the film on track. And by avoiding sentimentality, Millions emerges as a simple tale told with sympathy for a child's point of view.
MILLIONS
Fox Searchlight
Fox Searchlight and Pathe Features present in association with U.K. Film Council and BBC Films a Mission Pictures production
Credits:
Director: Danny Boyle
Writer: Frank Cottrell Boyce
Producer: Andrew Hauptman
Graham Broadbent, Damian Jones
Executive producers: Francois Ivernel, Cameron McCracken, Duncan Reid, David M. Thompson
Director of photography: Anthony Dop Mantle
Production designer: Mark Tildesley
Costumes: Susannah Buxton
Music: John Murphy
Editor: Chris Gill.
Cast:
Damian: Alex Etel
Anthony: Lewis McGibbon
Ronnbie: James Nesbitt
Dorothy: Daisy Donovan
Man: Christopher Fulford
MPAA rating: PG-13
Running time -- 97 minutes...
TORONTO -- Millions finds Danny Boyle, one of Britain's most stylish filmmakers, in a fanciful mood, open to a story about saints and miracles and the way a child's imagination can help sort out the mysteries of life. It's a modern-day fable told in semirealistic terms, only with the understanding that a boy can believe in miracles just as another might put his faith in a star athlete.
This Fox Searchlight release will need imagination in its marketing, for this is no easy sell in specialty venues. Critical reception may pay a large role in its boxoffice success.
In all his films, Boyle loves to take the view that reality is what you make of it. He's not a surrealist, but rather believes that film like dreams can transport us to realms not immediately apparent to the naked eye.
In Millions, scripted by 24 Hour Party People writer Frank Cottrell Boyce, we follow the emotional journey of two brothers, 7-year-old Damian (Alex Etel) and 9-year-old Anthony (Lewis McGibbon), who move to the suburbs in northern England with their dad (James Nesbitt) after their mom dies. Anthony is a practical-minded kid who covers up his emotions, but Damian is more of a dreamer. He has studied the lives of the saints and experiences visitations by several of his favorites, whose stories help him deal with life's perplexities.
When a large bag jammed with money falls off a train and virtually lands on top of Damian, he accepts this as a gift from God. Anthony says it's best not to tell Dad because of the taxes; the government will take 40%. Behind his brother's back, Damian goes on a rescue mission: He tries to give much of the money away to poor people.
Then the boys learn the money was actually stolen by a gang of thieves. This is a crushing blow to Damian since he can no longer consider the cash to be a gift from God. Soon one nasty-looking thief (Christopher Fulford) comes looking for his loot. When Dad and his new girlfriend (Daisy Donovan) learn of the money, the boys are disappointed that the adults show a more mercenary attitude toward the windfall.
Using digital effects and sharp camera angles and movements that treat the adult world as a kind of huge playground, Boyle maneuvers the fragile tale through a colorful, fairy-tale-like milieu. At times, style seems on the verge of triumphing over substance, but Boyle's firm hand and astute, natural acting by the two youngsters keep the film on track. And by avoiding sentimentality, Millions emerges as a simple tale told with sympathy for a child's point of view.
MILLIONS
Fox Searchlight
Fox Searchlight and Pathe Features present in association with U.K. Film Council and BBC Films a Mission Pictures production
Credits:
Director: Danny Boyle
Writer: Frank Cottrell Boyce
Producer: Andrew Hauptman
Graham Broadbent, Damian Jones
Executive producers: Francois Ivernel, Cameron McCracken, Duncan Reid, David M. Thompson
Director of photography: Anthony Dop Mantle
Production designer: Mark Tildesley
Costumes: Susannah Buxton
Music: John Murphy
Editor: Chris Gill.
Cast:
Damian: Alex Etel
Anthony: Lewis McGibbon
Ronnbie: James Nesbitt
Dorothy: Daisy Donovan
Man: Christopher Fulford
MPAA rating: PG-13
Running time -- 97 minutes...
- 9/16/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Screened
Berlin International Film Festival
BERLIN -- In "Country of My Skull", John Boorman, never a director to shy away from a challenge, tries to understand the crimes of South Africa's apartheid system by creating a fictional drama out of that country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The TRC was South Africa's substitute for a war crimes tribunal. Over many months, this commission took testimony directly from victims and perpetrators. A full and honest confession could result in amnesty for white oppressors, yet the commission's goal -- deemed successful by some but not all South Africans -- was to reach peace and understanding through forgiveness. Such material does not yield easily to dramatic storytelling.
The script by South African-born Ann Peacock, based on a book by Antjie Krog, an Afrikaan poet who covered the trial for radio and print, imagines two fictional characters through whose eyes we witness and react to the testimony. The movie never completely succeeds with this clumsy contrivance.
With Samuel L. Jackson and Juliette Binoche as sparring reporters, Sony Pictures Classics has a fighting chance to reach adult audiences in specialty venues. But clearly, the marketing department has a chore on its hands to inspire moviegoing interest in a topic that may feel remote to many Americans.
Indeed Jackson's Langston Whitfield, a D.C.-based reporter for the Washington Post, himself wonders why his editors want him to fly to South Africa to listen to stories about white authorities abusing black citizens. He can hear that any day right at home. But off he goes, and his first encounter with an Afrikaaner is with Binoche's radio reporter Anna Malan, a character based in part on Krog.
It's a pretty hostile encounter because Langston has already made up his mind about the guilt of all Afrikaans. But with Anna's sound engineer Dumi (young South African TV star Menzi "Ngubs" Ngubane) acting as an eager and often amused referee, the two continue to debate this issue as they follow the traveling commission through the countryside.
The overly melodramatic script manufactures episodes such as a flat tire and nearby bar so both can let their hair down and argue their point of view. That these two married people wind up in the sack may be stretching the meaning of truth and reconciliation. But this does point up a problem the movie never solves: how to impose a fictional drama on such overwhelming real-life events without the fictional stuff coming off as trivial.
The charisma and hard work by his two leads allows Boorman to succeed beyond all expectations. The relationship and inner struggles of these two individuals do manage to reflect the problem of how a country goes about resolving its pain. And the stories recounted to the commission get to the root of what made apartheid so evil: It was not just the viciousness of its crimes but its daily humiliations designed to make an entire group of people feel subhuman.
Occasionally, the movie cuts to an interview Langston gets with an army colonel, who is meant to embody all apartheid evil. In contrast to the spare and moving testimony at the hearings, this unrepentant, whiskey-soaked confession come off as that of a B-movie Nazi. Brendan Gleeson is a great actor, but even he can do little with such an ill-conceived character. An out-of-nowhere suicide by a minor character at the end is equally as heavy-handed.
Seamus Deasy's lush cinematography contrasts the grim testimony with spectacular landscapes, underscoring Anna's dilemma of how one who dearly loves a beautiful country can reconcile that love with the crimes committed to keep it "white." The music, a compilation of black South African secular and religious music, is another major plus.
COUNTRY OF MY SKULL
Sony Pictures Classics
Phoenix Pictures presents a Film Consortium and Merlin Films production in association with the U.K. Film Council and the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa
Credits:
Director: John Boorman
Screenwriter: Ann Peacock
Based on the book by: Antjie Krog
Producers: Robert Chartoff, Mike Medavoy, John Boorman, Kieran Corrigan, Lynn Hendee, David Wicht
Executive producers: Chris Auty, Neil Peplow, Mfundi Vundla, Duncan Reid, Sam Bhembe, Jamie Brown
Director of photography: Seamus Deasy
Production designer: Derek Wallace
Music supervisor: Philip King
Costume designer: Jo Katsaras
Editor: Ron Davis
Cast:
Langston Whitfield: Samuel L. Jackson
Anna Malan: Juliette Binoche
De Jager: Brendan Gleeson
Dumi Mkhalipi: Menzi "Ngubs" Ngubane
Anderson: Sam Ngakane
Elsa: Aletta Bezuidenhout
Running time -- 104 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Berlin International Film Festival
BERLIN -- In "Country of My Skull", John Boorman, never a director to shy away from a challenge, tries to understand the crimes of South Africa's apartheid system by creating a fictional drama out of that country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The TRC was South Africa's substitute for a war crimes tribunal. Over many months, this commission took testimony directly from victims and perpetrators. A full and honest confession could result in amnesty for white oppressors, yet the commission's goal -- deemed successful by some but not all South Africans -- was to reach peace and understanding through forgiveness. Such material does not yield easily to dramatic storytelling.
The script by South African-born Ann Peacock, based on a book by Antjie Krog, an Afrikaan poet who covered the trial for radio and print, imagines two fictional characters through whose eyes we witness and react to the testimony. The movie never completely succeeds with this clumsy contrivance.
With Samuel L. Jackson and Juliette Binoche as sparring reporters, Sony Pictures Classics has a fighting chance to reach adult audiences in specialty venues. But clearly, the marketing department has a chore on its hands to inspire moviegoing interest in a topic that may feel remote to many Americans.
Indeed Jackson's Langston Whitfield, a D.C.-based reporter for the Washington Post, himself wonders why his editors want him to fly to South Africa to listen to stories about white authorities abusing black citizens. He can hear that any day right at home. But off he goes, and his first encounter with an Afrikaaner is with Binoche's radio reporter Anna Malan, a character based in part on Krog.
It's a pretty hostile encounter because Langston has already made up his mind about the guilt of all Afrikaans. But with Anna's sound engineer Dumi (young South African TV star Menzi "Ngubs" Ngubane) acting as an eager and often amused referee, the two continue to debate this issue as they follow the traveling commission through the countryside.
The overly melodramatic script manufactures episodes such as a flat tire and nearby bar so both can let their hair down and argue their point of view. That these two married people wind up in the sack may be stretching the meaning of truth and reconciliation. But this does point up a problem the movie never solves: how to impose a fictional drama on such overwhelming real-life events without the fictional stuff coming off as trivial.
The charisma and hard work by his two leads allows Boorman to succeed beyond all expectations. The relationship and inner struggles of these two individuals do manage to reflect the problem of how a country goes about resolving its pain. And the stories recounted to the commission get to the root of what made apartheid so evil: It was not just the viciousness of its crimes but its daily humiliations designed to make an entire group of people feel subhuman.
Occasionally, the movie cuts to an interview Langston gets with an army colonel, who is meant to embody all apartheid evil. In contrast to the spare and moving testimony at the hearings, this unrepentant, whiskey-soaked confession come off as that of a B-movie Nazi. Brendan Gleeson is a great actor, but even he can do little with such an ill-conceived character. An out-of-nowhere suicide by a minor character at the end is equally as heavy-handed.
Seamus Deasy's lush cinematography contrasts the grim testimony with spectacular landscapes, underscoring Anna's dilemma of how one who dearly loves a beautiful country can reconcile that love with the crimes committed to keep it "white." The music, a compilation of black South African secular and religious music, is another major plus.
COUNTRY OF MY SKULL
Sony Pictures Classics
Phoenix Pictures presents a Film Consortium and Merlin Films production in association with the U.K. Film Council and the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa
Credits:
Director: John Boorman
Screenwriter: Ann Peacock
Based on the book by: Antjie Krog
Producers: Robert Chartoff, Mike Medavoy, John Boorman, Kieran Corrigan, Lynn Hendee, David Wicht
Executive producers: Chris Auty, Neil Peplow, Mfundi Vundla, Duncan Reid, Sam Bhembe, Jamie Brown
Director of photography: Seamus Deasy
Production designer: Derek Wallace
Music supervisor: Philip King
Costume designer: Jo Katsaras
Editor: Ron Davis
Cast:
Langston Whitfield: Samuel L. Jackson
Anna Malan: Juliette Binoche
De Jager: Brendan Gleeson
Dumi Mkhalipi: Menzi "Ngubs" Ngubane
Anderson: Sam Ngakane
Elsa: Aletta Bezuidenhout
Running time -- 104 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Screened
Berlin International Film Festival
BERLIN -- In "Country of My Skull", John Boorman, never a director to shy away from a challenge, tries to understand the crimes of South Africa's apartheid system by creating a fictional drama out of that country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The TRC was South Africa's substitute for a war crimes tribunal. Over many months, this commission took testimony directly from victims and perpetrators. A full and honest confession could result in amnesty for white oppressors, yet the commission's goal -- deemed successful by some but not all South Africans -- was to reach peace and understanding through forgiveness. Such material does not yield easily to dramatic storytelling.
The script by South African-born Ann Peacock, based on a book by Antjie Krog, an Afrikaan poet who covered the trial for radio and print, imagines two fictional characters through whose eyes we witness and react to the testimony. The movie never completely succeeds with this clumsy contrivance.
With Samuel L. Jackson and Juliette Binoche as sparring reporters, Sony Pictures Classics has a fighting chance to reach adult audiences in specialty venues. But clearly, the marketing department has a chore on its hands to inspire moviegoing interest in a topic that may feel remote to many Americans.
Indeed Jackson's Langston Whitfield, a D.C.-based reporter for the Washington Post, himself wonders why his editors want him to fly to South Africa to listen to stories about white authorities abusing black citizens. He can hear that any day right at home. But off he goes, and his first encounter with an Afrikaaner is with Binoche's radio reporter Anna Malan, a character based in part on Krog.
It's a pretty hostile encounter because Langston has already made up his mind about the guilt of all Afrikaans. But with Anna's sound engineer Dumi (young South African TV star Menzi "Ngubs" Ngubane) acting as an eager and often amused referee, the two continue to debate this issue as they follow the traveling commission through the countryside.
The overly melodramatic script manufactures episodes such as a flat tire and nearby bar so both can let their hair down and argue their point of view. That these two married people wind up in the sack may be stretching the meaning of truth and reconciliation. But this does point up a problem the movie never solves: how to impose a fictional drama on such overwhelming real-life events without the fictional stuff coming off as trivial.
The charisma and hard work by his two leads allows Boorman to succeed beyond all expectations. The relationship and inner struggles of these two individuals do manage to reflect the problem of how a country goes about resolving its pain. And the stories recounted to the commission get to the root of what made apartheid so evil: It was not just the viciousness of its crimes but its daily humiliations designed to make an entire group of people feel subhuman.
Occasionally, the movie cuts to an interview Langston gets with an army colonel, who is meant to embody all apartheid evil. In contrast to the spare and moving testimony at the hearings, this unrepentant, whiskey-soaked confession come off as that of a B-movie Nazi. Brendan Gleeson is a great actor, but even he can do little with such an ill-conceived character. An out-of-nowhere suicide by a minor character at the end is equally as heavy-handed.
Seamus Deasy's lush cinematography contrasts the grim testimony with spectacular landscapes, underscoring Anna's dilemma of how one who dearly loves a beautiful country can reconcile that love with the crimes committed to keep it "white." The music, a compilation of black South African secular and religious music, is another major plus.
COUNTRY OF MY SKULL
Sony Pictures Classics
Phoenix Pictures presents a Film Consortium and Merlin Films production in association with the U.K. Film Council and the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa
Credits:
Director: John Boorman
Screenwriter: Ann Peacock
Based on the book by: Antjie Krog
Producers: Robert Chartoff, Mike Medavoy, John Boorman, Kieran Corrigan, Lynn Hendee, David Wicht
Executive producers: Chris Auty, Neil Peplow, Mfundi Vundla, Duncan Reid, Sam Bhembe, Jamie Brown
Director of photography: Seamus Deasy
Production designer: Derek Wallace
Music supervisor: Philip King
Costume designer: Jo Katsaras
Editor: Ron Davis
Cast:
Langston Whitfield: Samuel L. Jackson
Anna Malan: Juliette Binoche
De Jager: Brendan Gleeson
Dumi Mkhalipi: Menzi "Ngubs" Ngubane
Anderson: Sam Ngakane
Elsa: Aletta Bezuidenhout
Running time -- 104 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Berlin International Film Festival
BERLIN -- In "Country of My Skull", John Boorman, never a director to shy away from a challenge, tries to understand the crimes of South Africa's apartheid system by creating a fictional drama out of that country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The TRC was South Africa's substitute for a war crimes tribunal. Over many months, this commission took testimony directly from victims and perpetrators. A full and honest confession could result in amnesty for white oppressors, yet the commission's goal -- deemed successful by some but not all South Africans -- was to reach peace and understanding through forgiveness. Such material does not yield easily to dramatic storytelling.
The script by South African-born Ann Peacock, based on a book by Antjie Krog, an Afrikaan poet who covered the trial for radio and print, imagines two fictional characters through whose eyes we witness and react to the testimony. The movie never completely succeeds with this clumsy contrivance.
With Samuel L. Jackson and Juliette Binoche as sparring reporters, Sony Pictures Classics has a fighting chance to reach adult audiences in specialty venues. But clearly, the marketing department has a chore on its hands to inspire moviegoing interest in a topic that may feel remote to many Americans.
Indeed Jackson's Langston Whitfield, a D.C.-based reporter for the Washington Post, himself wonders why his editors want him to fly to South Africa to listen to stories about white authorities abusing black citizens. He can hear that any day right at home. But off he goes, and his first encounter with an Afrikaaner is with Binoche's radio reporter Anna Malan, a character based in part on Krog.
It's a pretty hostile encounter because Langston has already made up his mind about the guilt of all Afrikaans. But with Anna's sound engineer Dumi (young South African TV star Menzi "Ngubs" Ngubane) acting as an eager and often amused referee, the two continue to debate this issue as they follow the traveling commission through the countryside.
The overly melodramatic script manufactures episodes such as a flat tire and nearby bar so both can let their hair down and argue their point of view. That these two married people wind up in the sack may be stretching the meaning of truth and reconciliation. But this does point up a problem the movie never solves: how to impose a fictional drama on such overwhelming real-life events without the fictional stuff coming off as trivial.
The charisma and hard work by his two leads allows Boorman to succeed beyond all expectations. The relationship and inner struggles of these two individuals do manage to reflect the problem of how a country goes about resolving its pain. And the stories recounted to the commission get to the root of what made apartheid so evil: It was not just the viciousness of its crimes but its daily humiliations designed to make an entire group of people feel subhuman.
Occasionally, the movie cuts to an interview Langston gets with an army colonel, who is meant to embody all apartheid evil. In contrast to the spare and moving testimony at the hearings, this unrepentant, whiskey-soaked confession come off as that of a B-movie Nazi. Brendan Gleeson is a great actor, but even he can do little with such an ill-conceived character. An out-of-nowhere suicide by a minor character at the end is equally as heavy-handed.
Seamus Deasy's lush cinematography contrasts the grim testimony with spectacular landscapes, underscoring Anna's dilemma of how one who dearly loves a beautiful country can reconcile that love with the crimes committed to keep it "white." The music, a compilation of black South African secular and religious music, is another major plus.
COUNTRY OF MY SKULL
Sony Pictures Classics
Phoenix Pictures presents a Film Consortium and Merlin Films production in association with the U.K. Film Council and the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa
Credits:
Director: John Boorman
Screenwriter: Ann Peacock
Based on the book by: Antjie Krog
Producers: Robert Chartoff, Mike Medavoy, John Boorman, Kieran Corrigan, Lynn Hendee, David Wicht
Executive producers: Chris Auty, Neil Peplow, Mfundi Vundla, Duncan Reid, Sam Bhembe, Jamie Brown
Director of photography: Seamus Deasy
Production designer: Derek Wallace
Music supervisor: Philip King
Costume designer: Jo Katsaras
Editor: Ron Davis
Cast:
Langston Whitfield: Samuel L. Jackson
Anna Malan: Juliette Binoche
De Jager: Brendan Gleeson
Dumi Mkhalipi: Menzi "Ngubs" Ngubane
Anderson: Sam Ngakane
Elsa: Aletta Bezuidenhout
Running time -- 104 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Girl With a Pearl Earring is a fictional exploration of the world of Dutch master Johannes Vermeer and the painting of his most enigmatic and beloved portrait, Girl With a Pearl Earring. The movie takes us deep into the intimate realms of artistic inspiration. Based on Tracy Chevalier's best-selling novel, Olivia Hetreed's screenplay has imaginative fun, speculating on who that girl in the painting is and why she looks both amused and sad. The film, the directorial debut by television director Peter Webber, also offers lively lessons in the techniques and methodology of 17th century painting. This is an art film in spades.
Boasting inspired performances by Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson -- the queen so far of this year's Toronto film festival, based on her work in Lost in Translation and this film -- Girl is not likely to move beyond the art house, but the film does succeed where few others have in penetrating the life of a painter and the source of his art.
Cinematographer Eduardo Serra and designer Ben van Os make every frame of this picture a living tribute to Vermeer, utilizing his composition and lighting to capture the look of 1665 Holland. They use the famed "northern lighting" that catches faces and objects in a warm half light that opens up common domestic scenes to the beauties of color and form. The film bathes its actors, furniture and open spaces in a glorious incandescence.
Griet (Johansson), still a teenager, must leave her Protestant home to enter Vermeer's tumultuous, Catholic household in Delft when her father, a tile painter, becomes blind. The place is run by stern women. Vermeer's penny-pinching mother-in-law, Maria (Judy Parfitt), keeps a close eye on her emotional daughter Catharina (Essie Davis) -- perennially pregnant with another child to feed -- her mischievous granddaughter and a pair of gossipy female servants. On the floor above, in his studio, Vermeer (Firth) labors painstakingly but in peace on his paintings. He is not prolific, taking months to complete a commission, thus straining the household's finances.
In the new maid, the daughter of an artist, Vermeer senses an appreciation of his work no one else in the family shows. He teaches her to buy and mix his paints. He notices her response to his experiments with light and space. And as her husband's interest in this fresh-faced lass grows, so does his wife's jealousy.
The young beauty attracts the attention of two other men: the wealthy Master van Ruijven (Tom Wilkerson), Vermeer's lustful patron, and Pieter (Cillian Murphy), a butcher's son who shyly courts her. Sensing the tensions within Vermeer's household and desiring Griet himself, the cunning van Ruijven dangles a tempting commission before Vermeer. He asks the artist to paint Griet alone, behind his wife's back. Money-hungry Maria allows the commission -- and Vermeer's relationship with Griet -- to proceed.
The film keenly observes the psychological warfare within the household even as it takes the measure to the teeming township outside its door, where animals roam the streets and garbage lies in the canals. All this, the movie seems to say, goes into the painting of one masterpiece, all these tensions, hardships and schemes as well as the life of the times.
Johansson's brave and intelligent innocence is nicely balanced by Firth's worldly, compassionate admiration of his painting's subject. In another time and place, these two would be lovers. But here, distinctions in class, religion and education make this impossible; here, their passion remains cerebral and platonic, though sexual tensions abound.
High marks belong to the film's entire crew, including Alexandre Desplat's elegant score and Dien van Straalen's costumes modeled after Vermeer's work.
GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING
Lions Gate Films
Lions Gate and Pathe in association with U.K. Film Council present an Archer Street/Delux production
Credits: Director: Peter Webber
Screenwriter: Olivia Hetreed
Based on the novel by: Tracy Chevalier
Producers: Andy Paterson, Anand Tucker
Executive producers: Francois Ivernel, Cameron McCracken, Duncan Reid, Tom Ortenberg, Peter Block, Nick Drake, Philip Erdoes, Daria Jovivic
Director of photography: Eduardo Serra
Production designer: Ben van Os
Music: Alexandre Desplat
Costume designer: Dien van Straalen
Editor: Kate Evans
Cast: Vermeer: Colin Firth
Griet: Scarlett Johansson
Van Ruijven: Tom Wilkerson
Maria Thins: Judy Parfitt
Pieter: Cillian Murphy
Catharina: Essie Davis
Running time -- 99 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Boasting inspired performances by Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson -- the queen so far of this year's Toronto film festival, based on her work in Lost in Translation and this film -- Girl is not likely to move beyond the art house, but the film does succeed where few others have in penetrating the life of a painter and the source of his art.
Cinematographer Eduardo Serra and designer Ben van Os make every frame of this picture a living tribute to Vermeer, utilizing his composition and lighting to capture the look of 1665 Holland. They use the famed "northern lighting" that catches faces and objects in a warm half light that opens up common domestic scenes to the beauties of color and form. The film bathes its actors, furniture and open spaces in a glorious incandescence.
Griet (Johansson), still a teenager, must leave her Protestant home to enter Vermeer's tumultuous, Catholic household in Delft when her father, a tile painter, becomes blind. The place is run by stern women. Vermeer's penny-pinching mother-in-law, Maria (Judy Parfitt), keeps a close eye on her emotional daughter Catharina (Essie Davis) -- perennially pregnant with another child to feed -- her mischievous granddaughter and a pair of gossipy female servants. On the floor above, in his studio, Vermeer (Firth) labors painstakingly but in peace on his paintings. He is not prolific, taking months to complete a commission, thus straining the household's finances.
In the new maid, the daughter of an artist, Vermeer senses an appreciation of his work no one else in the family shows. He teaches her to buy and mix his paints. He notices her response to his experiments with light and space. And as her husband's interest in this fresh-faced lass grows, so does his wife's jealousy.
The young beauty attracts the attention of two other men: the wealthy Master van Ruijven (Tom Wilkerson), Vermeer's lustful patron, and Pieter (Cillian Murphy), a butcher's son who shyly courts her. Sensing the tensions within Vermeer's household and desiring Griet himself, the cunning van Ruijven dangles a tempting commission before Vermeer. He asks the artist to paint Griet alone, behind his wife's back. Money-hungry Maria allows the commission -- and Vermeer's relationship with Griet -- to proceed.
The film keenly observes the psychological warfare within the household even as it takes the measure to the teeming township outside its door, where animals roam the streets and garbage lies in the canals. All this, the movie seems to say, goes into the painting of one masterpiece, all these tensions, hardships and schemes as well as the life of the times.
Johansson's brave and intelligent innocence is nicely balanced by Firth's worldly, compassionate admiration of his painting's subject. In another time and place, these two would be lovers. But here, distinctions in class, religion and education make this impossible; here, their passion remains cerebral and platonic, though sexual tensions abound.
High marks belong to the film's entire crew, including Alexandre Desplat's elegant score and Dien van Straalen's costumes modeled after Vermeer's work.
GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING
Lions Gate Films
Lions Gate and Pathe in association with U.K. Film Council present an Archer Street/Delux production
Credits: Director: Peter Webber
Screenwriter: Olivia Hetreed
Based on the novel by: Tracy Chevalier
Producers: Andy Paterson, Anand Tucker
Executive producers: Francois Ivernel, Cameron McCracken, Duncan Reid, Tom Ortenberg, Peter Block, Nick Drake, Philip Erdoes, Daria Jovivic
Director of photography: Eduardo Serra
Production designer: Ben van Os
Music: Alexandre Desplat
Costume designer: Dien van Straalen
Editor: Kate Evans
Cast: Vermeer: Colin Firth
Griet: Scarlett Johansson
Van Ruijven: Tom Wilkerson
Maria Thins: Judy Parfitt
Pieter: Cillian Murphy
Catharina: Essie Davis
Running time -- 99 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 12/26/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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